I do not know how Harvard selects their president of the law review.  However, I doubt there was any affirmative action plan that would assist anyone in reaching that position.  If I had to guess, based on my experiences with my law school's law review, I would say that it works something like this:

Harvard may have some general admission criteria that would help minorities gain admission as a student.  Race is a permissible "factor" in admissions decisions so long as quotas are not instituted.  But, with the fierce competition to make law review, I do not think that there would be any factors considered other than academic performance.  Other students would have revolted against such policy, without a doubt.

As for becoming president of the law review, I would imagine that the incoming president is elected by the outgoing law review board based solely on the candidates' performance on law review under them the previous year. Of course, there is a bit of politics within the law review that may influence the decision.  But, I doubt that the school appointed him - the law review operates with quite a bit of autonomy.  At least that is how it works at Capital. 

So, without knowing any specifics about Harvard's law review, I would find it very difficult to believe that race played any role in the decision at all.  If you consider that he was the first black president of the Harvard law review, if anything, race would have more likely been a detriment.

Most likely, he was diligent in his staff law review assignments and was very involved with assisting the law review board with their duties and he probably took on extra duties that impressed the board.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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